Combined Unit Plan Assessment and Evaluation - 2007

Unit Name: Evolution
Author: Krista
Evaluator: Jay

This assessment is a combination of three different forms. The first is meant to provide feedback on the degree that the unit plan has incorporated the main ideas about science teaching stressed in EDC 430 this semester. The second is the URI School of Education Rubric that is used across all the teaching methods courses to make sure that the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards (RIBTs) are being addressed. The third component is a summary of my feedback for each of your unit plan components. NOTE: All criteria on the SOE Rubric must score a 3 or above in order for you to begin student teaching. Please feel free to revise your unit plan based on this feedback, and send me an email explaining your revisions.

Score Summary; Grade: 18/25 All SOE criteria passed.

Revisions to make at your leisure:

• Review the detailed lesson feedback at the bottom of this page and make improvements accordingly.

Completeness and Organization

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
1. Is the unit plan organized in a way that makes sense?	01/(01)
2. Are all the components present? (e.g. Purpose, Concept Map or Outline, 10 Day Lesson Sequence, 3 Long Lessons, Rationale citing how students learn, Assessment strategy.)	10/(12)	Learning performances and concept map are not specific to the unit.
3. Is the writing clear, engaging, proofread, formatted, etc.	01/(01)

Content

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
4. Are the standards unpacked to indicate subtopics? Student preconceptions?	01/(02)	Standards were unpacked, but it is not clear whether the topics that are stressed in the unit are included in this unpacking.
5. Does each lesson include learning performances, i.e. statements about what students will be able to do at the end of the lesson?	02/(02)
6. Do the plans have students doing something every day? Do students experience phenomena related to the topic?	01/(02)	Though a variety of modes are used , students are essentially information consumers for the first 4 days. The jigsaw activity may be an exception, but no case is presented for needing to learn from the jigsaw activity.
7. Do laboratory activities include sufficient time/instruction for students to do/learn about science practices?	0/ (01)	There are not lab activities in the first four lessons. It is not clear that any science practices are address in the later laboratory activities, (bird origami (?) finch data)

Assessment

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
8. Do the long lesson plans include questions that allow for formative assessment?	01/(02)	No assessment criteria provided
9. Are students assessed at a variety of cognitive levels?	01/(02)	Most activities seem oriented at knowledge/comprehension levels.

Overall impression

10. What will students love (or at least enjoy) about this unit? Students may appreciate the short video resources and the discussions, but it depends on how you conduct them.

11. What might be added to make this unit more engaging? Students need to be able to get up and do something each 90 minute period. Your later activities where students work in small groups to eventually prepare a presentation is more palatable than the discussion-lecture-discussion pattern because the students get tired of sitting and hearing.

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SOE Unit Plan Rubric

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Score: 4. Evidence/ Comments:

Goals are consistent with level and grade of course.

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

Relevant national standards are addressed, but RI GSEs are not explicitly cited.

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

Goals focus on content but do not address teaching science inquiry skills.

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Score: 3. Evidence/ Comments:

A variety of different modes and representations are used.

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Score 3. Evidence/Comments:

Students prior knowledge is taken into account at the beginning of the unit. Each lesson opening explains purpose of the day's activity but doesn't always activate students' prior knowledge.

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Score: 4: Evidence/Comments:

Most lessons are developmentally appropriate, and the connections between the lessons are made explicit for students.

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Score: 5. Evidence/Comments:

A variety of media are used in instruction that provide students with virtual experiences relevant to evolution.

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3. Evidence/Comments:

Materials that are present represent topics accurately, though lecture notes and other resources are sometimes missing.

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Score 3. Evidence/Comments

Students are asked to analyz and present information.

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Students are provided with opportunities to present to peers and review for the unit test.

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Score: 5 Evidence/Comments:

Unit plan is carefully and accurately written.

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Detailed Feedback

Purpose

• There is no mention of inquiry or science practices in your purpose statement.

Learning Performances and Standards of Evolution Unit

• Your learning performances seem for the most part to be at a low cognitive level (describe, explain, give examples...). Does this reflect the level of understanding you expect in your unit?
• You have performances related education, but what about inquiry? Are you going to teach in science practices during your unit?

Concept Map

• This concept map pertains to evolution, but to what degree does it correspond you your unit? You should either make your own representation or circle/annotate the concepts that your unit will address.
• I would suggest the former choice, since the two purposes of the CM include (1) to communicate to others what your unit contains, and (2) to help YOU organize your main ideas and refer back to them to know what to emphasize each day.

Lesson Sequence

• Why not add a few sentences in a new column in your table describing what students will be doing each day and how that builds as the unit progresses?

L01 - Introduction to Evolution

• Overview
  • Your overviews should be paragraphs that describe what students will do, why, what unit topics will be addressed, and how the lesson builds on past lessons and supports future lessons.
• Objectives
  • This objective needs to be more specific in order it to drive assessment. Your resources "What Evolution is Not" lists many different points. Do you want to list some or be able to explain a few?
• Introduction
  • I like the idea of introducing this topic by connecting with students' prior ideas about evolution. This video is a little long for my taste, but you're the teacher. :-)
  • How will you transition from students' answers on board to your lecture? I'm not crazy about the "What Evolution Is Not.." page because it presents its ideas as truth beyond debate, which is pretty ironic. Presenting these ideas as posted might be extremely problematic because there no explanation, justification or evidence provided. Just reading this list of bulleted assertions could result in animosity, disrespect, or other acting out if a student's prior knowledge of evolution pits it against his or her family's religious beliefs.
• Activities
  • Where is your powerpoint file?
• Though your lesson has multiple activities, students spend most of their time sitting and listening and watching. Is it your intent that students are consumers for most of the period? Do you remember you observations about what students were actually doing do this type of activity?
• Would it better to have students learn to define evolution over the course of the whole unit?
• Conclusion
  • How will you conclude the lesson that emphasizes its main points?
  • How will you set up the next lesson. Given that you've basically preached to them this period (statements with no evidence), can you set them up to demand evidence from you? This would be nice, since you are planning to present evidence next.
  • Be sure your CT looks over your evolution lessons, since you do not want to be at the center of a parent storm during student teaching.
• Assessment
  • You say you will assess their understanding... how? The misconceptions are well documented, so what questions will you ask that probe your students' understandings and ferret out the misconceptions?

L02 - Evidence for Evolution

• Overview
  • While it is nice that your three lessons fit together well enough to be thought of as a single lesson, it is more practical for a teacher to represent what happens each day as one lesson. One reason for this is that you have omitted how you will open, close, and connect each lesson.
• Objectives
  • You should add the objective that students will be able to explain how fossils are formed.
• Introduction
  • For each day, you should open with a question that will pique students' interest, and make the objectives clear and relate the day's activities with the unit as a whole as well as with what was done the next day.
• Activities
  • It is probably not enough to say "I will discuss the results as a class." You should add questions you might add, points that you will be sure to emphasize, and ways that you will connect the day's activities with each other.
  • If you're going to lecture, then your slides/notes should eventually attached to this plan.
  • You should prepare sub-packets from an article in order to do a jigsaw activity. What instructions will you use to support this activity? Will each group have these instructions on a single page?
  • Are you going to acknowledge students' homework in any way the next day?
  • What is a "backgrounder?" Do you have one for the "Fish with Fingers" video? When you show a video clip in class, be sure to have a simultaneous task, otherwise many students will disengage. You at least give the students questions that you will want the to answer after the video beforehand.
  • One thing that bothers me about the first four days is that students have not had a chance to use what they've learned. If it was me, I would figure a way for them to apply each day's ideas. This is especially true because the class is 90 minutes.
• Conclusion
  • You need to relate what is done each day to the unit's purpose as well as what will be done the next day and future days. You've got the unit planned, right? Why not let the students know that you know were they are and where they're going.
• Assessment
  • You probably need more detail about your assessment strategy. What are the key points for this set of lessons/activities? Is it time for a quiz?